I would spend his empire refusing to escape, staying, in spirit, in the cold room, and using everything he left me to make sure it was cold for no one, ever again.

That, I thought, was the truest way to honor both my mother, whose name would be on the endowment, and the strange redemption of the father who had, at the very end, tried to give back what he took.

He gave the money back to his daughter.

His daughter gave it back to the room.

Chapter 19 — The Velvet Armchair

“And the rest?” Mr.